The Story Of The Boy Who Says “Why Do I Have To Wear This?” To His Mother
Reason #38 that Face Masks Hurt Kids
Dear Reader,
The wearing of a face mask to protect against a respiratory virus is an act of grand deceit. It is a behavior that defies research on the topic. Wearing a face mask, as this article (one of many) points to — is unsafe to do and is ineffective.
Until the narrative around mandatory masking has changed, each day by 6am Eastern, I will both post here and send out a science-based reason why no one should wear a face mask.
I ask that you help me circulate these pieces to those around you who you believe could most benefit from them. It is important not to remain silent on this topic. These are important discussions to be having with friends, family members, business owners, healthcare practitioners, public servants, and others in the community.
-Allan
This is for the kid who yelled at his mom over the leaf blower, “But if no one else is wearing a face mask, why do I have to?!”
My phone said it was a sunny 61 degrees out. Most of the people in that park that morning were in short sleeves and shorts.
Some had jump ropes, some had weights, some were walking their dogs, others were talking on the phone. It being lockdown, some of these activities had moved outside to the park.
From your gait, you looked like a healthy kid who loves both sun and fresh air. Some kids these days can barely walk, they get so little exercise.
You were maybe as young as ten-years-old and having started your growth spurt, or perhaps as old as thirteen, but not having started a spurt yet, starting to get independent in your thoughts.
But not that independent yet, for your mother had wrapped you head-to-toe in a track suit that matched her own. She had you in full sunglasses that matched her own. Your full, oversized cloth face mask matched her own as well. You wore similar baseball style caps. Even your hair, on the longer side, and of similar color, would have matched hers, had hers not been up in a ponytail.
It was your internal terrain, though, that did not match hers. I heard you say as you walked into the park, “But if no one else is wearing a face mask, why do I have to?!”
I called out to you “Great questions. Great question. You need to protect the mind that asked that question.”
You flipped around and faced me. Your mother’s tightening physiology was unmistakable through her tracksuit.
I blurted it right out. I am sorry to have interfered in your mother’s parenting, but I remain happy that my first instinct was to blurt out truth where there is so little and to praise the youngin’ who refuses to be conned.
I kept walking toward my task in the park. You kept walking toward yours.
Fifty others must have been in that park that morning when you walked in. There were many corners of the park in which to avoid a person. Not a single person, other than the two of you, was wearing a mask. The news, of course, claimed our city was 95% masked. Not true. About thirty minutes later, another man came into the park and was wearing a mask. Later, another man would come in wearing a mask around his neck. Though this city remains on full lockdown and the politicians and media tout the high level of compliance, there is clearly so little compliance.
Your mother instructed you to avoid me if you wanted to stay in the park. You wisely avoided me. I would not have spoken to you again.
Out of an abundance of caution, your mother soon, perhaps within two minutes of your entry, got you out of the park of unmasked people.
She will have a hard time keeping you in that track suit for much longer. She will have a hard time keeping you in that face mask for much longer. But she will have her ways. If she is a good mom, she will start to make way for you to develop your own ways, and will answer your questions with the best amount of reason and evidence she can muster. It is hard. Kids ask some pretty devastating questions. We cannot always be perfect parents.
If she is a bad mom, she will give you answers like “Because I say so,” and will enforce it with the amount of power she has over your food, water, housing, and general happiness. She may even be physical in her approach toward your questions. Though you are already about 3/4 her size, a hand slap from a parent you love can surely still send you reeling: emotionally and physically. That will not always be the case. And I doubt she hits you for such questions based on your comfort questioning her as glibly as you did. She, at least, does not hit you in public.
Parents are never perfect. Perfection is not needed from a parent or anyone else.
Ahead of you is a magnificent life, if you let it be. Ahead of you is a magnificent period of intrigue and growth, if you let it be. We have a few assets in life that mean much to us in the grand scheme of things. One of them is the space between our two ears.
You have reached an advanced age without that asset being molded into subservience — either to your parents or your peers. Congratulations. Now, is when the world starts to move into overdrive. The next ten years they will do all that they can to acculturate you.
Wind up on the other side of that crucible with a mind disobedient, and you will be richly rewarded for being one of the few who was able to accomplish that.
It will come at you in different ways in the succeeding decade. Bullies of all sorts will want to bend your will to theirs. Do not stand for it, and you will be one of the few who succeed through that crucible. The good news is that this segment of life will be nothing like the first two decades.
And another reprieve will come to you in the next decade. By this time, most militaries and government agencies will stop seeing you as so desirable. You will have largely lost the ability to be shaped by them.
If you can make it to your forties, society really backs off. The cake is baked. You are who you are. The fight to submit your mind to the will of another never comes to an end, but a little reprieve comes and rewards start to stack up.
Among those rewards are that your acquaintances start self-selecting, if you have not already chased off the facile-minded.
There is a lot of good news. You have made it through the worst. Many tyrants through the ages wanted you early in life. Some said they could shape you by five-years-old, others said they could shape you by seven-years-old. The foundations in life are set during this time. New foundations can always be built, but for many, these early years are so informative about how the rest of this time goes.
And you, dear masked young man, are maturing beyond the period of the first crucible. You have failed the test of acculturation. You have become your own person, able to blurt out his own thoughts to a figure of authority.
It was not the most original thought “If they do not have to do it then why do I?” but it was a good start. From a starting place like that, you could turn into one of the snitching Karens of the world or a disobedient Henry David Thoreau.
That choice is your own.
If it is to be a Thoreau, you have come to the right place.
The bestselling book "Face Masks In One Lesson" by Allan Stevo describes how to never wear a face mask again. The follow-up to the book, "Face Masks Hurt Kids," describes why to never wear a face mask again. We must defeat the awful, narrative around the mandates.
Examples of how face masks hurt kids will be posted to the Lockdown Land Substack each morning by 6am Eastern until the narrative around this ineffective and harmful medical intervention has shifted. Face masks are, in fact, not just harmful to children. Face masks are harmful to everyone. Thank you so much for helping me circulate this research.
I agree, very will written...